CarTrade.com: A Sudden End to Journey

In April a new clause was added in cartrade-Honda tie up that forfeited amount will go to Honda auto terrace. Due to this auto terrace managers started putting fake entries, false information, etc. to obtain the amount of the forfeiture. On the other hand, they were selling the cars through internal setting to show the sales to Honda management. Hence all the genuine dealers lost faith in the auction & our team was trying it on small garages who cannot afford to lose any sort of money.

All of my customers were either forfeited or were not getting the cars. It had become the job of creating enemies by taking the money rather than creating a healthy business relationship. It was the time, even I lost the faith in the auction. I wasn't pushing the clients to buy it, I was appealing to simply those who were interested. In April I brought only one cheque & that too dealer told me not to deposit it until there is a call from his side. I even exhibited the negative side of the auction to one of the dealers who was approached by the team as I was supposed to face everything here not they. My management was on the safe side as they were sitting in Mumbai not here in Ahmedabad. I would have been in a big big trouble if I had continued to make fake promises to dealers.

My plan was to do the job for four to five years, then I was exiting to start my own business to fulfil my dreams. I might sound bit arrogant here, but I don't think I can achieve my dreams with an yearly growth of 10-15%. Paa knew everything what I was going through so on the first sunday of May Paa & I discussed everything & on monday morning I mailed my resignation. It was quite a sudden end of the journey, but on that sunday paa told me one thing 'Let's give it a shot to your dream' & that was it for me. Then I was relieved by the company by 20th of may. I will never forget cartrade for two reasons, one they give me the freedom to play in my own way & other they showed lot of faith in me & I am grateful to cartrade management for that.

I am also grateful to the whole team of cartrade sales department in Ahmedabad specially Hiren sir, for standing by me throughout & Mukesh Bhai & Nilesh Bhai for being there to help me whenever I needed them. Piyush Bhai, Himanshu, Prashant, Kuldeep & Bhavesh Bhai also helped me in the beginning, so thanks to you guys as well. Now it's time for my own venture & I have been training for that since 20th May.

I am going to give birth to a clothing brand this year. It is not the right time to enroll into the market. The market is all time low at the moment, rotation of money has stopped due to various factors & there are no signs of boom either. The odds have always been against me, but this time I am firm on my decision & not much worried about the odds. I know I have to be extra careful at every step & I think I am prepared for that. A lot is at stake in this venture its not only my dreams, but it is going to involve my whole family. It is almost like everything or nothing so it is going to be a really hard time for me. If I failed at it, I will back to that 10% growth. But over the years cricket has taught me that 'you will be remembered for the performance you have given in crucial time.' So I am prepared for that crucial time. Hence fingers crossed & let's see how I perform in the crucial time.

The End.

CarTrade.com: Golden Period

On 30th of december I convinced that customer to register & he gave me the cheque on 31st december. What a way to end the year. I got the cheque at 5:30 so the banks were closed by therefore I submitted it on 2nd January & my score was 1. In those 4 months after the end of every month, I used to think I will be sacked this month but company kept faith in me & I am always going to be thankful to company for that. I don't think any finance company would have waited that long for me. I would have been sacked by the end of second month there.

I begun the january on high by depositing the cheque on the second day of new year. I didn't knew there is a twist in the story. On 5th of january I received a call from that dealer that 'cheque I had given you has bounced due to insufficient balance come tomorrow and take away the cash.' I went to take the cash the other day but he said he don't have cash now come tomorrow & it went on for next 15 days. I knew he is not going to give me cash by then. My score was 0 again & again I had a feeling that I will be sacked by the end of month but I was firm that I will make another sale this month. In between I blocked that dealer's account & started hunting behind another one who was interested.

Again company had some different plans for me on 23rd of january they ordered me to go to Valsad & Navsari for three days for the auction which had no future. So there was no meaning in staying there for three days. I came back next day & got the cheque from the dealer whom I was hunting for. If I hadn't gone to Valsad & Navsari I would have got the cheque that day only. This time I made sure that cheque has cleared & not bounced. Finally my score was 1 & ended the january with a sale. It was that time my hard work was paying off.

On 2nd february I collected 2 cheques in one day. One came because of my effort & other came because of Hiren sir. Thank you sir for that. I collected revenue of over 42000 in one day. It was a some kind of record, I felt of smacking those cheques on the face of that RM but I believe that actions speaks larger than the words & 42000 in one day spoke everything on behalf of me. It was a month of celebration my career touching new high, cousin's wedding, goa tour everything happened in that smallest month of the year.

Among those sales the one I made in january, I lied to that dealer that you will get the cars easily which was not true at all about Honda auction. I did it because I was in desperation to get off the mark but from second sale onwards I was very more specific & 80% truthful about the terms & conditions of the auction. I carried on well in March as well I sold couple of registrations in that month as well. So it was good going but I tried to sell banks auction registration more than the Honda Consumer Auction.

The tie up of our company with Honda stopped the incentives of Honda auto terrace managers which they used to get by selling used cars. So obviously they were not going support rather they were trying everything to make this auction a big failure. They were not allowing the cars to dealers rather they were selling them via internal setting. I had fight with those managers of Honda auto terrace as they were not giving cars to my dealers rather they were forfeiting the money of them. Some of the dealers had won over 100 cars in the bid but they didn't get even a single car. It spreaded in the market like a viral so other dealers have no trust over me.

To be continued...

CarTrade.com: Honda Consumer Auction

After the two months the score was zero. All I had found was the reasons of not registering, I was not being able to convince any of the dealers to register. Product also wasn't beneficial for dealers so that they buy or register. So the company launched a new auction which was Honda Consumer Auction in third week of october. In that auction consumers (dealers) can buy that cars which comes in exchange of new cars from new car dealers. It was already going on informally used car dealers were already buying the exchanged cars from new car dealers.

I found this auction OK & finally something good for me. I took a sigh of relief & I thought I can open my account with it but in that too I wasn't shown the whole picture. In marketing it is the rule that you have to show only the benefits of the product to sell it but I feel you should also know the side effects of the product so you can cover them up nicely. In my case clients used to show me the side effects of my product. So I use to silently listen them & use to agree with them. If I knew those things earlier then I would have prepared counter of that to cover it up but my company has some other plans with me. Every day I used to come up with a new side effect from a dealer & it went till the end of October.

This auction also brought 'Ek Villain' of my journey & that was Relationship Manager of my region. Every story have atleast one villain & the villain of my story has arrived with this Honda Consumer Auction. I have to report him daily & he was totally a nut. In the begining he gave me the format in which I have to prepare my daily report & when I started reporting he said your format of report is not proper. I didn't 'invented' that format, you gave me that format. In first week he started getting on my nerves & I was in constant touch with Hiren sir & I use to tell him everything about that nut.

A seminar was arranged for the dealers in the end of october to present that new Honda Auction. So couple of days before the seminar that nut told me invite the dealers by personally visiting them but 2 hours later he told me to stop visiting & start calling. So I did that but to prove that he was really a nut after one & half hour again he called me & said stop calling & start visiting. He touched the height of my patience that day, it was really frustrating day for me. Moreover it was the time of diwali the boom period in every market & industry & most awaited period for every one to earn some money. So the dealers were not really interested in attending it. I feel it was the worst time for any kind of seminar but it happened. AVP of our comany & head of Honda came to give that presentation & very few dealers attended that seminar. It turned out to be a good seminar for me atleast as Hiren sir there said everything to AVP about the behaviour of RM with me. It was an eventful end to an october.

November passed pretty quickly. First ten days passed into the holidays of diwali & remaining twenty days passed in getting the mood of business after that long break. It felt like straight away december has arrived after october. The score was still zero after three months. So that nut RM was behind me like anything. He used to get my on nerves every now and then but the water went over my head when on one december morning he abused me. On that day the way he talked with me like he has bought me against that salary they are paying to me. I was literally thinking of changing the job as soon as possible but thanks to Hiren sir again who took that matter to HR department & HR head shown him his limits. I feel god was watching that I was making some serious efforts & he helped me there through Hiren sir. Finally in the other half of december I found the market where dealers were purchasing banks repossessed cars & in that market some of the dealers were already our customers. So that was the actual target market for me. I visited those old customers, took refrences from them & visited new dealers in that area & finally I found a customer who was interested in registering on our website for the bank auctions.

To be continued...